Not to man, but God submit, Lay my reasonings at Thy feet : 3. Of my boasted wisdom spoil'd, 4. Then infuse the teaching grace, Weanèd from the scorner's ways 3. All that feeds my busy pride, 4. Make me as a little child, Of my strength and wisdom spoil'd; 5. Leaning on Thy loving breast, 6. In this posture let me live, When Mr. Wesley published the Hymn-Book of 1779, he wrote in the preface the oft-quoted words, "Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our hymns. Now, they are perfectly welcome so to do, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favours: either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men." Again, in the preface to the "Pocket Hymn-Book, for the Use of Christians of all Denominations," 1787, the sixth clause reads, ""But did not you, in a late preface, give any one leave to print your hymns that pleased?' No; I never did. I never said, I never intended any such thing. My words are, (p. 6,) • Many have reprinted many of our hymns. They are welcome!' Who? Why Mr. Madan, Berridge, and those that have done it already for the use of their congregations," etc. In the year 1866 the Rev. Samuel W. Christophers published a very pleasant, readable volume, entitled, "Hymn-Writers and their Hymns." The eleventh chapter of this book is headed, "Hymn-Menders," in which he speaks of the Rev. John Wesley as an effective preface writer, and quotes the preface to his pocket dictionary, which, although anonymous, he thinks claims the same parentage with that to the collection of hymus published in the year 1779. He then proceeds, "John Wesley feels himself equal alike to lexicography and hymnic composition. He might be called a prophet, too. At all events, there is something in his preface like a forecasting of times, when the rage for compiling hymnbooks would lead to all sorts of hymn-mending." He then exclaims, "Poor Wesley! the reckless menders began while he was yet alive;" and after giving specimens of the mutilation of Wesley's hymns by altering and tinkering, and then showing how much dignity the Wesleys have added to some of the best compositions of Dr. Watts, by slight alterations of a word or two, a line, or a stanza, he turns upon the Wesleys and says, "The Wesleyan Hymn-menders are not always as happy in dealing with other hymnists as in their emendations of Watts. For instance, when they alter that beautiful hymn by Berridge 'Jesus, cast a look on me,' and place the altered form in their collection as beginning with 'Lord, that I may learn of Thee.' The original should have been held sacred. It is founded on Psalm cxxxi. 2, 'My soul is even as a weaned child.' " The hymn of Charles Wesley to which reference is here made was published in the year 1762, in his "Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures," and is founded on Isaiah xxviii. 9: "Whom shall he teach knowledge?......them that are weaned." As Mr. Christophers has imputed plagiarism to the Wesleys, let us see upon what grounds. The writer has a copy of the "Collection of Divine Songs," 1760; but the hymn beginning, "Jesus, cast a look on me," is not contained in that volume. The earliest intimation we have of Berridge's poetical effusions was in 1774, when he became a contributor of verses to the Gospel Magazine, as we have seen from the preface of the 1785 book, under the name of "Old Everton;" but the hymn does not appear in those magazine contributions. I then come to "Sion's Songs," published in 1785, in which collection the hymn appears for the first time. Sir Roundell Palmer, in his "Book of Praise," gives the date of the publication of the hymn as 1785. Charles Wesley's hymn commencing, "Lord, that I may learn of Thee," as before stated, was published in the year 1762, twenty-three years before Berridge's hymn; and if the hymns of the latter were prepared twelve years before they were published, as stated in the preface already quoted, that would go back to the year 1773, or eleven years after the date of Charles Wesley's volume. Under these circumstances there cannot be a doubt who is the plagiarist. It cannot for a moment be supposed that Charles Wesley would, in whole or part, publish a hymn of another author, then living, and send it forth to the world as his own. Berridge, as before noticed, admits that "the greatest and best part of the hymns had been selected from those of the Revs. Mr. John and Charles Wesley,... many of them almost new made; " and he makes it clear that he tried his "prentice hand" at the "tinkling employment to amuse but not fatigue" him; or rather, the tinkering trade of mending, or trying to mend, the hymns of the Wesleys: but the results were a miserable failure, and fully proved that it was a "business he was neither born nor bred to." The "Whole Works" of the Rev. John Berridge, A.M., with a memoir of his life by the Rev. Richard Whittingham, was published in the year 1864. After reprinting the hymns of 1785, the following note is inserted: "The five succeeding hymns were copied by Mr. C. Gordelier from a copy, formerly in his possession, of 'Hymns and Gospel Sonnets, by the Rev. John Berridge,' but which he lent to a friend, who has either lost or mislaid it. These are inserted here on his authority, and as the only hymns in the volume not republished in 'Sion's Songs.' The editor, after every endeavour, has failed to obtain a copy of the volume." It is admitted on all hands that Berridge only published the three books mentioned at the beginning of this paper: "The Christian World Unmasked," "A Collection of Divine Songs," and "Sion's Songs." His biographer says that the collection of 1760 is very scarce; "Mr. Berridge, after his change of sentiments, having diligently bought up and destroyed all he could procure." I trust it will appear to the satisfaction of all candid persons that Charles Wesley is the rightful author of the hymn numbered 302 in the Methodist Hymn-Book; and that John Berridge is, in this case, "Hymn. mender" and plagiarist. "Honour to whom honour is due." Belfast. JAMES STELFOX. THE SYNOD OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF FRANCE, 1872. THE Synod of the Reformed Church, which held its sessions in Paris from the 6th of June to the 10th of July last, may be regarded as one of the most important events connected with the interests of religion which have for a long time taken place in France and on the Continent. This ecclesiastical gathering, the first that has been sanctioned by the Government since 1659, revives the noblest traditions of the French Reformation, and opens before it a new era. Its effect, we trust, will be greatly to advance the kingdom of God in France; and for this reason some account of the transactions of the Synod will be interesting to English Christians. In order, however, to their perusing more advantageously the history we are about to place before the reader, it will be well to indicate briefly the present position of the Reformed Church; first of all glancing at its ancient Synods. The first Reformed Synod was held in Paris in 1559. During forty years the new doctrines had gained adherents, founded churches, and given martyrs to the scaffolds. But the numerous congregations formed in different parts of the country felt the necessity of establishing among themselves a common interest, and of constituting themselves a single body. Only eleven churches were represented at this first Synod, which may be said to have assembled by the light of burning piles which delivered martyrs from their persecutors. But if the number of its members was small, its importance was not therefore inconsiderable. In a few days it drew up and formally accepted the Confession of Faith and the Discipline, each containing forty articles. The Confession, * Ebenezer Palmer, 18, Paternoster Row, London. inspired by the genius of Calvin, proceeded in a direct line from his "Institution of the Christian Religion," which had been published a few years previously. It was this venerable document that, under the name of the "Confession of Faith of Rochelle," constituted the dogmatic basis of the French Reformation. If the Confession from the meeting of the first Synod took its almost definitive form, it was not so with the Discipline, which received, in succeeding Synods, numerous additions and modifications; instead of forty, it comprised at length more than two hundred articles. The Church to which the Synod of 1559 gave origin was Calvinist in doctrine, and Presbyterian in organization. Firmly founded on its twofold basis, it was prepared to undergo, during two centuries, assaults as severe as those to which any Church has been subjected since the perse. cutions of the early part of the Christian era. Neither St. Bartholomew nor the Dragonnades triumphed over it; but it raised its head after each tempest that assailed it, still active and unwearied. The explanation of this surprising vitality of the Huguenots is doubtless to be found mainly in their vigorous and Scriptural faith; but also in this strong Synodal organization, which allowed the Church to re-appear, and to re-constitute itself on the morrow, after trials that seemed likely to destroy it. Without the Synods, the same proofs of individual heroism might have been witnessed, but the Church would have lost all sense of its unity, and all power of collective action on the nation. The Synods of the Reformed Church of France distribute themselves into two periods; the former one embraces exactly a century, 1559 to 1659. These assemblies met with tolerable regularity, and, from the reign of Henry IV., with the sanction of the Government, which sent to them a representative of its own. Under the protection afforded by the Edict of Nantes, they attained a considerable influence, and even distinction; standing in recognised relations with the Government, they represented the interests of Protestantism, and defended it against the encroachments of all kinds which abounded. But under the reign of Louis XIV., when the despotic policy which has ever sought to destroy French Protestantism began gradually to root itself, the Synods fell into disfavour, were harassed by unjust demands, until, having been for a time barely tolerated, they were, by a sudden stroke of arbitrary authority, altogether suppressed. It was at the Synod of Loudun, the twenty-ninth from the commencement, that the commissioner of the king declared haughtily that for the future the Church would no more enjoy the right to hold such assemblies. The moderator, Jean Daillé, urged the most vigorous protests; he declared that it was "altogether impossible for our holy religion to be preserved without meetings of this kind." In vain; Louis XIV. crushed the Synods, because he had resolved to crush the Reformed religion itself. This was one of those tyrannical acts which were the prelude to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. For nearly seventy years, (1660-1726,) the Reformed Church held no Synods; and soon it could boast neither of places of worship nor of pastors. Persecution was organized, -systematic, cold, cruel. The "grand king" would fain expiate his sins by ridding his dominions of the venom of heresy. Such as he could not gain over by his famous "coffer of conversions" he sought to constrain by violence. The pastors on whose heads a price was set left the kingdom, taking with them the flower of the Protestants, who sought on a foreign soil the right to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. Louis XIV. may have imagined for a moment that there were no Protestants remaining in France. But he was mistaken; and before his death learned that a religious faith is not in this way to be destroyed. The revolt of the Camisards was the desperate attempt of an oppressed people, who found means of keeping in check an army despatched against them, and compelled it to come to terms with them. An evil greater than Dragonnades now appeared, -the absence of Divine worship, pastors, and organization among the Protestants who remained loyal to their faith. Deprived of the regular institutions which are the safeguards of religious life, they were in danger of being discouraged, or of abandoning themselves to a mystical fanaticism. Strange phenomena in fact appeared among them: they had their prophets and their "illuminés." No longer permitted to chant the psalms in their places of worship they believed they heard them chanted in the air around them by troops of angels; ploughmen, shepherds, and artisans imagined that they had received supernatural communications for the consolation of their brethren. The Synods which had once saved the French Reformation, in the sixteenth century, saved it again in the eighteenth. In 1715, the first Synod of the "Desert" was held near Nîmes, at the bottom of a quarry, in early times worked by the Romans in the construction of an amphitheatre. It took place eleven days before the death of Louis XIV.: while its great adversary was departing, the Reformation began to retrieve its fortunes. The Synod of Nîmes was only for the province of Languedoc. It was not until 1726 that the first Synod for the nation could assemble; the scene of its deliberations was a valley of the district of Vivarais, in Languedoc. It was held under the presidency of James Roger, the most venerable of the pastors of "the Desert," who some years afterwards suffered martyrdom. These Synods of "the Desert" had not the importance which attached to those of the former period; they represented but a limited number of the churches; and their authority, moreover, was less official than moral. They nevertheless effected an important work of restoration, restored to the remains of French Protestantism a certain amount of cohesion, by becoming a common bond which drew them nearer to each other. They also succeeded in arresting the abuses which had crept amongst the persecuted flocks, established a regular ministry, and put again into force the ancient discipline. In those dark years of oppression, the Synods were as the soul of the Church, actively transporting itself from place to place, and affirming, in face of the brutal victories of despotism, the sovereign rights of the Christian conscience. The last Synod of "the Desert" was held in 1763. In the preceding year five Protestants perished on the scaffold; but they were the last thus to suffer for the sake of their religion. Aided by the philosophy of the eighteenth century, toleration began to mould the national |